The Conscious Community (TCC) is an informational newsletter focusing on information that has a connection to people of African descent. The Conscious Community e-letter is an activity of 'Imani Is My Foundation' which is a electronic media campaign that promotes the Uplift of People of Afrikan descent. The information posted comes from numerous sources and contributors.

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

Getting on the bus to DC this October 10? BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon wishes you safe travels, but he ain't coming. "Justice or Else" is a meaningless slogan, he says, and MMM continues a century old tradition of black leadership dependent on an unprincipled pretense of "black unity" so empowered leaders can speak for us while we serve as their mute (unless commanded otherwisde) backdrop.

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Carrying on a tradition begun by Fidel Castro in 1960, Venezuelan leader Maduro came to Harlem, this week, for the opening of the UN General Assembly. When he spoke of U.S. terror in the world, the crowd cheered. But will they break with a Democratic Party and president that, along with the Republicans, are "the birthmothers of al Qaida and the midwives of the Islamic State?" Sometimes, solidarity is even less than skin deep.

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

With Libya, Iraq and Syria in flames, the president of Russia confronted the world's most dangerous man in the global hall of humanity. "I cannot help asking those who have caused the situation," said Vladimir Putin, "do you realize now what you've done?" Obama, the nation-slayer, sneered and mouthed exceptionalist absurdities – unmasked before the world.

by Danny Haiphong

"Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are here to rescue the system with a dose of fear and hope." Trump's open-air racism instills fear in racial minorities and people who consider themselves "liberal" or "progressive." Sanders gives them foolish hope that the Democratic Party can be changed from within. Grassroots movement politics is sidetracked, because "presidential elections are where movements go to die, as the anti-war movement exemplified directly after the election of Barack Obama."

by Mark P. Fancher

Why not a Donald Trump run for the White House? With corporations firmly in control of U.S. society, presidents don't matter much. In recent decades, the job has been "eagerly accepted by: a Georgia peanut farmer; a politician known as "Slick Willie;" a retired actor who once co-starred with a chimp; a former CIA hack and oil man; his ne'er-do-well son; and most recently a black guy with a smooth rap."

by Dr. T.P. Wilkinson

Europeans and white Americans like to believe that religious fanaticism is endemic to the non-white, non-Christian world, and that they are the guardians of secular civilization. In reality, the historical rise of the West is a saga of fanaticism. In modern times, it was President Jimmy Carter who "started the wave of fanatical reactionary Islam in Afghanistan – to crush a secular regime there and indirectly attack the Soviet Union."

by Cynthia McKinney

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney see capitalism through different lenses. Reich thinks the system used to have a "moral center." McKinney says that's nonsense: "Business as usual in the United States IS the perpetuation of injustice."

Black Families and Women Bear Burden of Mass Incarceration

A survey of 1,000 former prison inmates and their families by the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, in Oakland, California, "showed that it's mainly African American women who bear the brunt of a loved one's incarceration," said Darris Young, a local organizer for the center who is himself a former inmate. "When an individual is incarcerated, then the impacts on the family, which translate back into the community, are enormous," said Young. For example, "nearly one out of five families involved in our survey faced eviction – they were denied housing or did not even qualify for public housing once their formerly incarcerated family member returned."

October Rising: Mass Protest in NYC

"We are coming out of a year of police literally getting away with murder," said Carl Dix, co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and an organizer of Rise Up October, a series of demonstrations set for October 22 through 24in New York City. "We've reached a crucial turning point, because the authorities have not only doubled down on releasing their police to brutalize and murder people, but they are trying to demonize the protest movement, talking about it being responsible for a non-existent war on cops." In reality, cop killings are at an historic low. "We have to meet that with redoubled resistance," said Dix.

U.S. Foments Chaos and Death in Syria

"From the beginning, the war in Syria has been about tearing down the government of Syria and creating a completely chaotic, destabilized state, which leaves Israel and the U.S. as the strong forces in the region," said Sara Flounders, of the United National Anti-War Coalition, UNAC. Washington pursues its goals by "sending in mercenaries" to fight alongside the Islamic State, "which was funded by Saudi Arabia and Turkey – both U.S. proxies in this war," said Flounders.

Washington Caused Flood of "Regime Change Refugees."

James Paul, former executive director of the Global Policy Forum and author of Syria Unmasked, said the U.S. has a long history of promoting jihadist warfare: "If we go back to Afghanistan, the U.S. pattern of supporting Islamic fundamentalist groups and movements is very consistent – it's almost the standard playbook," said Paul. "The biggest gift that the Europeans could give to the refugees in their countries is to look into ending these military interventions." Paul describes most of the current Middle Eastern and North African migrants as "regime change refugees."